ALBANY -- What was once a brouhaha among Democrats has shifted into a two-person race, and just days after Sen. Eric Schneiderman won a five-way primary, he finds himself immediately trading barbs with his Republican opponent, Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.

"I don't think he's qualified to be the attorney general," Donovan said on The Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter. "He's been part of a dysfunctional legislature for the past 12 years, part of the dysfunction that's become a national joke on Saturday Night Live."

Schneiderman, in turn, called Donovan "someone who has worked his way up through the machine of the Staten Island Republican Party" and attacked him for putting more emphasis on policing public corruption than overseeing Wall Street firms, which has been a banner aspect of the attorney general's office since Eliot Spitzer used the office to regulate large financial companies.

But Donovan's early leap for Schneiderman's throat has in some ways been enabled by the Democratic primary.

Schneiderman tacked hard to the left in that contest -- and was criticized by some of his former opponents for doing so -- in order to assemble a winning coalition of progressive and labor groups. At one point, receiving the endorsement of the Rev. Al Sharpton, he promised that Sharpton's National Action Network would have "an annex" in the attorney general's office.

It gave him a critical supporter in Sharpton, but the intensity of the comment gave Donovan an opening. Thursday, he said that showed bad judgment, noting the attorney general regulates not-for-profit organizations, and "how could you give special treatment to someone who you have oversight over?"

Schneiderman said the comment was not intended to be taken literally; he meant that the group, as well as others that "give a voice to the voiceless" will have a friend in him if he is elected.

Other charges were already brought up by Schneiderman's opponents in the primary. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice last weekend released a television advertisement tarring Schneiderman for his Senate service, and picturing him smiling as he appeared with Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., D-Bronx.

Espada was ousted in the primary -- Schneiderman has denounced him and supported his challenger, Gustavo Rivera -- but he will likely remain a favorite albatross of Republicans as they attack Democrats, particularly Democratic senators.

The losers in the Democratic primary presented a united front to support the winner.

Schneiderman counter-attacked Thursday.

"I think that we're in a time where the grassroots consequences of the financial meltdown have to be one of the top priorities of the next attorney general," he said. "If he were to suggest that he would divert resources away from that -- it's just the wrong approach."

Donovan said he would "fight corruption where it is" but, in an interview earlier, said he would shun the "Sheriff of Wall Street" badge that Spitzer wore conspicuously.

"I think they did what they thought was proper and I'm going to do what I think is proper, but I don't need any title to do that," he explained.

The men do agree on one point: the discourse in the race shouldn't degenerate.

"I think that's the thing that people in New York state are tired of. The same political garbage," said Donovan.

"I'm very much looking forward with comparing my record, the depth and diversity of my legal experience, with Mr. Donovan's," Schneiderman said.